Trip to Shirdi

Just one week after my stay in Mumbai I got again the chance to see an important place in India. All the blind children were sponsored a trip to Shirdi, a spiritual place for Sai Baba and the second most important temple in India.
We set off from the school n Saturday morning, staring with a “farewell procedure” which I basically had to perform. It meant among other things breaking a coconut and spilling its water on the bus, but also some sacred signs were painted on it and incense sticks burned. – it took us nearly seven hours to reach Shirdi and for me it was a surprise how calm and patient all of the students were. Although traveling in two buses there was not much space and comfort, but with singing Indian and (some) English songs, listening to music and few stops, time passed (and no one complained). Again and again slogans like “Jey sai nadki”, “Sai babaki” and others could be heard as well in the bus as on the temple complex. No matter who it cried, whether it was a small girl or an old man, it was always enthusiastically responded with “jey” by everybody, very often several times after another. I’ve never seen such a passion before.
After dinner all of us drove with the bus from our accommodation to the temple itsel. On a small stage the kids and two teachers presented a few religious songs. It was followed by a speech which introduced me to the crowd as well. Everything was fimed and photographed and appeared in the newspaper a few days later.and thus our group got a lot of attention.
Due to its importance and popularity the temple was as always very crowded. Fortunately we didn’t have to stand in the cue and got to all the important places in relatively little time. But although being treated differently than the other visitors there was a lot of rush and hurry and especially for me who doesn’t know a lot about Sai Baba (who is fur Hindus probably like Jesus for Christians), it was hard to find peace and the right spiritual mood.
The next day we traveled back, after having an interesting and uncommon night for me, sleeping close together on one room with approximately 50 girls and ladies. On our way we stopped in Saputara and the children got the chance to do some nice activities like a boat trip or a ride on a “rollercoaster”.

I stayed about four days with the blind and much more important than the trip to Shirdi was that it gave me the chance to get to know the kids better and improve our relationship. Unfortunately language is still the biggest barrier and sometimes avoids good communication and interaction. But at least I could help the staff and also do some teachings.

Christmas vacation

This year my Christmastime and New Year were totally different. First of all I had never spent these days having an average temperature of 30 degrees Celsius instead of cold weather and hopefully snow. On the other hand the religious aspect played an important role. More than 80 % of the Indian population is Hindus directly followed by Muslims. Only a few are Christians and thus Christmas is not much celebrated. Only 25th is a national holiday and most of the schools don’t give vacations, so the one where I’m staying. But because of my faith and due to the fact that I had never seen Mumbai, this was the perfect time. It was there when I saw the first Christmas decorations.
I stayed in this metropolitan city for 8 days at two families’ homes. Because they never celebrated Christmas or New Year I didn’t have it either, but I got the chance to see many things and get to know another part of India and Indian life. On 25th I went to see Mount Mary Church and had at least a little bit of Christmas atmosphere. Afterwards I went for some shopping to Linking Road. The next days consisted basically of sightseeing, combined with a lot of traveling through Mumbai. Thus I visited most of the places where the terror attacks had taken place like Tajmahal Hotel, Oberoi, Trident and the Gateway of India. Unfortunately there was a lot of security so we couldn’t get very close. Furthermore I visited the Elephanta Caves, a world heritage site, the Wankele Stadium, Helen-Keller-Institute for deaf and deafblind, went to Juhu Beach, and a handloom exhibition and a special dome-cinema. I also got the chance to visit a laughter club once and had a very nice and funny experience there. Starting in the early morning it was a mixture of physical exercises interrupted by different laughingmethods and -versions.

Actually I had expected big celebrations and fireworks on New Years Eve, but due to the bomb blast nearly al the parties etc. were closed and most of the open shops and restaurants were shut down by the police right after 12 o clock. Thus, and also because of some cultural and family reasons, I had a very quiet start into 2009, although being in one of the biggest cities of the world.